Click here for Interview on NPR of William Black, former litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board in the Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s. He gives two reasons for the failure of the federal government to adequately regulate the banks and to jail those who gained great wealth while causing serious economic harm to many others.
This is one of the most significant instances in our nation...

Click here for entire New Yorker article The making of a Republican front-runner.
By Ryan Lizza
Excerpts below.
In 1976, like many other fundamentalist Christians, the Bachmanns supported Jimmy Carter, a born-again Baptist. The Bachmanns attended Carter’s Inauguration, in January, 1977. Later that year, they experienced a second life-altering event: they watched a series of films by the evangelist and...

Quote below is from the Sunday New York Times discussing Grover Norquist, America’s newest manifestation of Puritanism. Let all those who love good government remember: The British kicked the Puritans out of England. They were that dangerous. The Taliban and the Puritans are similar in their purity of moral intention. The problem is not in Norquist’s and the Tea Party’s having...

In observing the creation of a crisis by Tea Party adherents in Congress and more generally Grover Norquist and his anti-government zealots, I am noticing that the American media, including NPR and the New York Times, are continuing to report the situation as if both political parties and their leaders are equally to blame for the impasse. But based on reasonable criteria, we can easily argue that the...

The fact that the American political system; the Constitution, gives great protection to property ownership, e.g. capital, does not mean that earning and possessing capital or wealth is the purpose of that system. Many in our intellectual class on the right and many who are good at earning money seem to make a basic confusion concerning something that it at once simple but subtle. I am speaking of the...

Terence Hoyt earned an MA in Economics from Fordham University in 1984, and a PhD in Philosophy fromTulane University in 2000. Between 1993 and 2012, I lived in New Orleans. Earlier on, I lived in Paris and Berlin for one year each. In 2012, after teaching philosophy for 15 years I returned to school to earn an MSW and then returned to upstate New York where I grew up.
My hope is for this site to increase understanding of the American political-economic system. I believe that the brighest among us do not adequately understand or appreciate American civilization. Too many among us take "the system" for granted, focus on a particular "cause" and then ignore what would keep our political-economy running well. I take the position that this problem needs to be viewed as a crisis of philosophy. It was good political philosophy that was responsible for our system and it is dysfunctional political philosophy that influences many activists to take stances undermine our economic as well as moral-spiritual well being. As of January 2017, we are in a crisis involving an unholy alliance between philosophical extremism and the usual suspects: the few who would manipulate the many to gain more wealth, power and privilege. With Plato, I believe that unless sober philosopher-types get involved in the daily affairs of public life, there will be no end to troubles. It is time for public intellectuals as well as academics in the humanities and social sciences to go back to the cave!

Seeking financial assistance for book editor

I am currently in the process of completing a book on the American political project I have been working on for six years. This book will be the culmination of years of studying, researching and thinking about what has made the America system so successful in enabling citizens to live peaceful and prosperous lives. The key to understanding this success is simple: harnessing the natural motives of four types of human beings. My goal is to educate public intellectuals, educators, and activists. I am asking for help paying for an editor for this book. I estimate the cost to be around $5,000. You can donate with the Pay Pal button below. If you would like to talk with me personally, please email me at "terencehoyt@gmail.com". I have posted the first sections of the book on the "Book Project" tab.